


Great Minds

by thomasjeffersonsmacaroni



Category: Lord of the Flies
Genre: Acquaintances to Friends to Lovers, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluffy Ending, Is that a thing, M/M, NaNoWriMo 2016, that's only a small part of it though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-24
Updated: 2016-11-30
Packaged: 2018-08-22 21:50:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8302471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thomasjeffersonsmacaroni/pseuds/thomasjeffersonsmacaroni
Summary: Simon, the resident shy kid, is assigned to work on a project with his best friend Sam ("Piggy") and his long-term crush, popular boy Ralph. Will it bring them together, or will Simon be as shy as ever and not seize his chance?There isn't enough Ralmon in this world, and I will never stop until there is a decent amount.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This might give off more American high school vibes than English high school vibes, and I'm sorry about that, but I'm an American and as such understand American high schools more.

"Good morning, Sam," said Simon, arriving at his school and going to his locker, phone in back pocket and lunch bag in his hand.

"Morning, Simon," Sam, or "Piggy" as everyone called him, responded briefly, looking up from his book, which he was reading while leaning against a wall.

"What's that you're reading?"

"Oh, just a book that I got from my auntie yesterday. I told her that we were studying astronomy and that it was really fun, and she got me this. It's really fascinating." At this point, Piggy had already folded the corner of one of the pages as he looked up and began to talk passionately about the contents of the chapter that he had been reading. Simon listened intently, nodding along, as he took his books out of his locker and began to put them into his backpack.

"-an' there's a ton of black matter that they haven't discovered, but they will someday, I just know it."

"Who knows, maybe you'll be the one to discover it," Simon said, smiling as he closed the lock and swung his backpack over his shoulder.

"I sure do hope so."

"Oh," said Piggy, holding up a hand to stop the dark-haired boy before he went to his next class, which the two didn't have together.

"I just remembered. How's Ralph?" He raised his eyebrows over his round glasses and grinned teasingly.

"Piggy, you know how he is. I've already accepted that he doesn't like me in that way. He's probably straight, too. I see him flirting with girls all the time."

"You never know, though. What if he likes you?"

"What if he doesn't?"

"What if he does?"

"What if he doesn't?"

This back and forth continued for a little while, neither of them making any other valid points, until the bell rang and both left for their respective classes.

 _Ralph doesn't like me._ He was easily one of the most popular students in their grade; some people even called him "the chief," and Simon knew that they were only half joking. Ralph was the popular student, the golden boy, captain of the swim team, and he was just Simon, the kid that everyone forgot about the existence of until there was an art project or a chorus concert. There was no way that Ralph would ever even _begin_ to like him. Piggy, however, had refused to accept that; ever since Simon had confided to him about his crush, he had been teasing him mercilessly.

Simon was still thinking about this as he walked into the classroom and instantly tripped on the door frame, falling to the ground and causing laughter from the few students already inside.

 

"Class, you have a new project." Simon, sitting next to Piggy in their fifth period English class, watched as Mr. Golding began to write on the board.

"We've all been reading _The Great Gatsby_ , and today you're going to break into groups of three and work together to prepare a presentation. Each of you will pick a theme from these ones that I've written on the board." He gestured with a hand at the list, which was written in a bright red.

"You will have until the end of the class period to give me your groups. Then, I will randomly assign to you the themes."

Instantly, the class devolved into chatter, and Simon and Piggy looked at each other instantly.

"Well, we're in a group, obviously," said Simon. "All of my friends are in different periods, though."

"We can ask someone who doesn't have a group," Piggy offered, standing up to look around the room for loners. Simon stood up as well, noticing in the process that Ralph was surrounded by people talking to him. The tall boy, however, was looking above the crowd, and he must have seen the helpless looks of the two friends, because he instantly pushed through the crowd and walked over to them.

"Do you guys have a third person yet?" he asked, looking down at Simon with bright blue eyes.

"No, we were just looking to see if anyone didn't have a group yet," Piggy said from the side, noticing how Simon was too flustered to speak.

"I can be in your group," Ralph offered. "I'm sort of good at English."

"Sure!" Simon grinned. "I'll just, er, go register us." Realizing that he probably sounded weird and awkward, he pulled out his phone, unlocked it, and handed it to Ralph. "Put your number into my phone, will you? And then I'll make a group chat so that we can talk about the project."

Ralph took it, and Simon walked up to Mr. Golding and said, "I'll be in a group with Sam and Ralph."

"Perfect," said Mr. Golding. "You'll be presenting about the theme of lies and deceit. Here's some information that might help you."

Simon took the packet that his teacher gave him and walked back to his group, where Piggy was putting his number into Ralph's phone.

"I already made the group chat from your phone, if that's okay," said Ralph.

"It's fine. Do you have Skype?"

"No, but I can get it. Why?"

"I was thinking that maybe we could have a group Skype call to talk about how we're going to do this."

"Ooh, good idea. I can't do tonight 'cause I have a swim meet, but maybe tomorrow? I'll text you with my username when I get home."

At that moment, the bell rang, and the group parted ways.

"See you tomorrow?" Simon asked hesitantly, trying to hide the fact that his mind was foggy with thoughts of Ralph's beauty.

"See you tomorrow."

 

At the end of the day, Simon was picked up by his mum, and when he got into the front passenger seat and looked back, he could see that his younger sister Emma was there, writing something on a folder.

"Hey, Si," she said, not looking up from her work.

"Hey, Em. What's that you're doing?"

"Math homework. I want to finish it as soon as possible so I can go play with Alex. She's leaving for Paris tomorrow."

"Paris?"

"Yeah, she's going to Paris to visit her family. And they're also going to see some cool sights."

"That sounds amazing. I wish I could go to Paris." At that moment, Simon got a text, and when he opened it, he could see that it was from the group chat for the project.

"Ooh, who's that you're texting?" Emma leaned forward and peered over his shoulder.

"I know Piggy, but who's Ralph?"

"Oh, just this popular boy in some of my classes. We're working on an English project together. Me, him, and Piggy."

"Ooh, a popular boy. Is he cute?"

Simon blushed furiously, unable to come up with a response.

"Aww, Simon's flustered! Mum, Simon has a crush on a popular boy in his class!"

Simon's mum giggled softly. "Simon, is this true?"

"Mum!"

"Simon and Ralph, sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes the love, then comes the marriage, then comes the baby in a baby carriage! Then comes the baby driving in a car, then comes the baby drinking-"

"Emma!" Simon's mum warned.

"When you go on your first date, let me do your hair," Emma whispered into Simon's ear, tying her hair back into a loose ponytail before sitting down and returning to her homework.

"Emma, shut up. He doesn't like me. I mean, he's Ralph, and I'm just Simon."

"Oh, don't say that," their mum said, speaking up for the first time. "Ralphs and Simons are both needed in this world. Anyway, we have to stop at the grocery store to get dinner, and then we need to pick Adam up from his daycare. Lizzie's already at home."

"Okay. So, Em, how was your day? Does your science teacher still hate you?"

"Oh, yes. He does. Today he..."

Simon only half-listened, staring off into the window in front of him and thinking about what his mom had said just a minute before. _Ralphs and Simons are both needed in this world._

But are they needed together? Are they _wanted_ together?

Maybe, in some sort of alternate universe that fulfilled all of his fantasies. But definitely not in this one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh boy howdy, I haven't written anything Lord of the Flies in such a long time! (Haven't read the book in such a long time, either. I may want to do that to write more accurately.) Anyway, next chapter on Friday!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this fic isn't dead it just fell asleep, next chapter on the 30th and then it'll be done

_[Incoming Skype call from English Group Project.]_

Simon clicked on the Answer button under the pop-up as he sat at the computer that he shared with Emma.

"Hey, guys," he said to Piggy and Ralph, grabbing his English notebook and opened it to the page with his notes.

"Hi, Simon." Ralph already had his notebook in hand, pencil behind his ear.

"So, how are we doing this?" asked Piggy after briefly smiling at the two. "I was thinkin' that we could make a Google Slides, that way we could all work on it..."

"Or a Prezi," Ralph suggested, "and do the screen-sharing thing so that we could all put in our ideas."

"The screen-sharing thing?" Piggy looked confused as he adjusted his glasses. He had never been good with technology, Simon recalled.

"Let me show you." Simon watched as Ralph clicked on a button, and soon, they could see the screen that he had open, which was a new tab of Google Chrome.

"Whoa, that's cool," said Piggy, looking awestruck. Ralph giggled slightly, and Simon joined in, though most of his smile as from thinking about how beautiful Ralph's was.

"Have you ever used Prezi before?" Ralph asked the pudgy boy.

"I think I might have, once."

"Okay, well, let me show you how it works." Simon watched as Ralph opened Prezi in a new tab, made a new presentation, and fiddled with the features to allow Piggy to get a feel for the site.

"The transitions are strange," Piggy said, "but I like it. We can use it."

"Awesome. Si, you were in charge of getting the quotes, right? Do you have them?"

 _Si. He called me Si._ "Yeah, I have them right here. Do you want me to send them to you?"

"Put them into a Google Doc and share them with us."

"Okay, I'll do that." In a new tab of Firefox, Simon opened Google Docs and began transcribing his notes onto the document.

"Oh, Piggy," he said when he was halfway through, suddenly remembering a story that he wanted to tell his best friend.

"Yes?"

"So I told you about how Adam's class is putting on a play, right?"

"Uh-huh."

"And they couldn't decide what play to put on, right?"

"Yep."

"So last night, Emma and I were listening to  _Hamilton,_ you know, that American musical about Alexander Hamilton. And I'm guessing that Lizzie and Adam must have heard us, because today, they were voting again, and according to my mom, Adam started to attempt to sing the opening song. So now we're not allowed to listen to it while Adam and Lizzie are in the house because it has bad words that they might repeat."

Piggy giggled hysterically. "I'm just trying to imagine that right now. How old is Adam again, four?"

Simon nodded. "A four year old, singing the opening song to Hamilton the Musical."

"Hamilton the Musical?" asked Ralph, looking somewhat confused. "What's that?"

"A hip-hop musical about the first United States treasury secretary," Simon said by way of explanation. "It's better than it sounds, honest. It's really hard to get tickets, so the rest of us have to listen to the soundtrack."

"I should listen to it, then," said Ralph. "Is it on YouTube?"

"Yep, or Spotify."

"I'll keep that in mind, I needed some new music to listen to."

" _Finally_ , I got someone outside of my family into Hamilton!" Simon let out a soft whoop of delight. "It has some bad words in it, so be careful. The music is amazing, though. Lin-Manuel Miranda is a genius."

"Uh-huh."

Simon typed in the last sentence of quotes and shared the document with his two partners. As they were discussing the best way to organize the information, he heard his mother calling him in the distance, saying something about the laundry that he needed to do.

"I have to go now," he said. "When can we talk again? I can't do tomorrow, we have chorus practice for our concert next weekend."

"Saturday, maybe?" Ralph suggested. "I have plans for the middle of the day, but the evening works for me."

"Me, too," said Piggy, and Simon looked at the planner that he kept on his desk before nodding.

"Yeah, that works. Bye, guys."

"Bye, Simon."

 

It seemed as if everything was going to be fine; the trio's plans for the project moved quickly, Piggy seemingly putting in the most effort out of all of them. Two weeks before it was due, though, when they were going to begin the biggest part of their presentation, Simon got a text in the group chat, and when he opened it, he saw that it was from Piggy.

_English Project: Sam: I had a really bad asthma attack, combined with something else that the doctors are still trying to figure out. I'll be at the hospital for a couple of weeks, and I'm too weak to do much, so I won't be able to help with the project. I'm really sorry._

_To: English Project: Oh my goodness are you okay?_

_English Project: Sam: As okay as I can be, yeah. I feel really weak, though. I'm really sorry I can't help you._

_English Project: Ralph: Don't worry about it, we can finish it without you :) I hope you feel better, though, an asthma attack has got to suck_

_To: English Project: Yeah, the most important thing is that you get better. Don't worry about it, please._

_English Project: Sam: Thanks so much_

_English Project: Ralph: No problem :)_

During the rest of the week, neither of them saw Piggy at school, and the only communication that Simon had with him was by text, because his throat was too sick for Skype or phone conversations. The pudgy boy was the only person that Simon regularly talked to, so for lunches or the school parade at the end of the week, he was forced to resort to awkwardly sitting next to his chorus friends and listening as they had conversations that they knew perfectly well he couldn't be a part of. Although being alone was in its own way satisfying, it also felt lonely and kind of strange without his best friend by his side.

Which was the excuse that Ralph used on Monday when he walked over to Simon sitting alone at lunch, grabbed him by the arm, and pulled him over to the table where he sat with his many friends, plonking him down with his lunch bag into the empty seat next to him.

"You seemed lonely," Ralph said by way of explanation. "And I felt bad for you."

"Welcome to the Ralph Table," one of the other boys grinned. "My name's John. You're Simon, right? Ralph talks about you sometimes."

"It's _not_ the Ralph Table!" Ralph protested, though he was laughing as he said it. "John's on the swim team with me. Most of these guys are, actually. But we'll try to include you."

Simon, unsure of what to say, was smiling somewhat awkwardly as he looked around at the boys, all of whom, thankfully, seemed completely willing to welcome him.

"Oh, Simon, you're in the environmental club, right?" one of the other boys asked as he leaned forward.

"Yeah, why?"

"I was just going to ask if you knew how to join it. Not for me, for my sister. She's a huge environmental person."

"Oh, there should be applications next to the posters. If there aren't, I would check the office. They have applications for every club in the school."

"All right, thanks."

"No problem."

The rest of the lunch was spent in chatter, and although most of it led back to swimming, which Simon knew very little about, the boys tried to include him and explain to him everything that he didn't understand. For the first time in a week, Simon felt as if he was among friends, and for the first time in he didn't even know how long, he felt truly included.

"Thank you," he said to Ralph as they separated and went to their individual classes.

"We're friends," Ralph said simply, as if this was an obvious fact, which, to him, it probably was. "You can sit with me any time you want."

That evening, after endless pestering from Piggy, whom Simon told about this sudden development, and Emma, who looked over his shoulder at the text messages, Simon mustered up the courage to text Ralph about something not related to school.

_To: Ralph: Hi, how are you?_

After he had sent it, Simon stared at the screen, heart seeming as if it couldn't decide whether to come to a complete stop or start beating faster than it had ever had in his life. Not wanting to have one of his fainting spells again, he began to take deep breaths, and he was in the middle of his third count when his phone buzzed with a reply.

_Ralph: I'm good, just tired from doing homework. What about you?_

Simon was typing out and deleting a response, suddenly self conscious about what he was like in Ralph's eyes, when the other boy sent him another text.

_Ralph: Oh did you hear the news about the new art museum opening? I think it's in southern London or something, and it's a modern art museum. I read about it on Tumblr and instantly thought of you._

_He thought of me._ Me!

_To: Ralph: No, I hadn't heard of that. I'll have to check it out. I love modern art._

_To: Ralph: Maybe we can go together sometime_

Simon typed this last text out in a hurry, before he could change his mind about sending it, and to his relief, the reply came instantly.

_Ralph: That would be amazing! I'm not much of an art person, but I'm sure that you could get me into it :)_

_To: Ralph: I'll get you into art if it's the last thing I do, haha_

_Ralph: I'm so ready_

_Ralph: So what do you like to do other than art? I know you're in the enviro club and chorus, but is there anything else?_

In his free time at home, Simon enjoyed gardening; he had lots of plants in the backyard of his house, and he told this to Ralph, though he deliberated whether or not he should confess his other passion, which was LGBT rights. As far as he knew, the popular boy wasn't openly homophobic, but he wasn't openly pro-gay rights either, and you never knew who could be homophobic or not, as Simon learned when he read the LGBT news online with sadness in his heart.

 _Even if he knows that I'm pro-LGBT_ , Simon eventually decided, _that doesn't necessarily mean I'm gay. I can gauge by his reaction whether or not I should come out._

_To: Ralph: I also sometimes help make posters and stuff for LGBT organizations, and one time I even helped organize a small pride rally_

After this text, Ralph hesitated for a long time, so long that Simon began to worry. But then-

_Ralph: That's so cool! I'm bi, so it's always great when someone supports LGBT rights. Maybe I could help you sometime?_

Before texting back, Simon took a screenshot of the conversation and frantically sent it to Piggy. He got a response almost instantly, and he laughed when he read through the long stream of text messages.

_Sam: ALJFLSDGOWISGLSDHGOWSHGOIWLFKL_

_Sam: YOU HAVE NO EXCUSE NOW_

_Sam: ASK HIM OUT_

_To: Sam: Just because he's bi doesn't mean he likes me Piggy that's not how it works_

_To: Sam: And I really don't think he likes me_

_Sam: But what if he does_

_Sam: Ask him out or I'm never talking to you again_

_To: Sam: FINE I'LL ASK HIM OUT TOMORROW_

_To: Sam: IF HE SAYS NO AND I END UP EMBARRASSING MYSELF IT'S YOUR FAULT_

_Sam: k_

After finishing, Simon breathed out a long sigh and went back to the conversation with Ralph.

_To: Ralph: Of course you can! I'll bring you along to the meetings sometime. As a gay person, it's really a great experience to be supporting the rights of people like me._

_Ralph: I can't wait until we go together :)_

_To: Ralph: :)_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A short list of things that we need more of:  
> -Piggy the overenthusiastic wingman  
> -Bi Ralph dating gay Simon  
> -Shy gay Simon having a crush on popular secretly bi Ralph


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So now that Ralph and Simon are both Hamilfans, I fux with you if they don't both ship Lams. /I/ don't usually ship Lams, but they do. That's my headcanon.

Simon woke up the next morning before his alarm to a loud buzzing from his phone. Hesitantly, he picked it up and immediately saw that he had an "okay" text from Ralph when he told him that he had something for him and would give it to him in the morning, but the majority of the unread text messages that he had were spam from Piggy.

_Sam: SIMON_

_Sam: SIMON_

_Sam: DID YOU DO IT YET_

_To: Sam: No, I haven't, because it's four in the morning and I'm not even at school yet_

_To: Sam: But I will, don't worry, I have a plan figured out and everything_

_Sam: Okay just wanted to make sure. I worry, you know._

_To: Sam: No need to_

_To: Sam: I'm going to try and go back to bed now even though you woke me up_

He put his phone down and tried to fall asleep, but sleep did not come easily when he was too consumed with worry about what would happen once he finally fulfilled Piggy's request and asked Ralph out, so when his alarm finally rang at six, he had been long ago awake. Simon got ready for school, like always, and his mom drove him, like always, but he felt as if he were going through the motions, one hand in his right pocket and touching the folded up note that he had written just before he went to bed, accompanied by a quick sketch of the pond near his house for reasons that he himself wasn't sure of.

When Simon walked into school, he immediately went to Ralph's locker, the location of which he knew because he had once dropped off supplies for their project. The first thing he saw was Ralph himself leaning against it, but just as he started to move towards him, he saw the leader of the school chorus, Jack Merridew, standing next to him and talking about something.

Simon knew Jack too well; they spent a lot of time around each other because of their chorus practices, and he was known as the "chief" because he struck fear into the hearts of even his friends with his pushiness, which sometimes overlapped into borderline harassment, and his non-stop drive for more, more, more that would have been perfectly acceptable if he didn't force it on everyone else. That, combined with Simon's own tendency to worry over things that probably weren't worth worrying about, was why he decided to slowly back away and wait for their conversation to be over to talk to Ralph.

"Oh, hi, Simon!" Ralph exclaimed too enthusiastically, as if he, too, was trying to get out of this situation.

_Never mind._

"Simon," said Jack sternly as he turned around, tall frame towering over the much smaller boy. "I have to talk to you."

"About?" Simon asked, already nervous.

"Have you practiced the songs that I gave out last week? Remember, you need to have them down pat by our next concert."

"Yeah, I practiced them a bit, but I had a lot of stuff to do for school and art club, so I haven't really had time to practice them as much as I would have wanted to-"

"Well, practice them more. Don't be a failure at the concert like last time. Last time you barely stumbled through them."

That wasn't true, not at all; Simon had had a bad anxiety attack just before they were supposed to come on stage, and that was why he hadn't performed as well as he would have liked to. Not because he hadn't practiced.

"Okay, Jack, I will," Simon said instead, not wanting to get on the chorus leader's bad side.

"Good. And make sure you don't faint, either. Or come close. Don't want that screwing up the concert, either."

"I won't," said Simon, feeling somewhat frustrated by now. Why did Jack have to hate him so much?

"You'd better not. You already make life so inconvenient with your meds, I don't-"

"Leave him alone already." Ralph stepped forward, almost in between them, and glared up at Jack, which didn't take a lot of glaring "up," because the boys were almost the same height.

"Stay out of this, Ralph," Jack snapped, turning away from Simon to return the glare. "I was just telling him what he should already know."

"I was right there, Jack. I'm not stupid. You were harassing him. And I think he already gets it. Leave. Him. Alone."

Jack huffed but reluctantly backed away, and Ralph took Simon's hand and led him into an empty classroom.

"Are you all right?" he asked as soon as the two were out of earshot of everyone. "You looked a bit queasy."

"I'm fine," said Simon, his breath now evening out. "He does that a lot and doesn't listen to anyone who asks him to stop."

"He's just a bully. Don't mind him."

"I know. We're in chorus together. And of course we share classes."

"Sometimes he comes to my swim team things unprompted and tries to harass me for no reason. Tells me that 'I'm not doing my job right' 'cause, you know, I'm the captain, and he thinks that he knows this better than I do."

"Yeah, I don't like him that much."

"Me neither," said Ralph, then, after a second, "So, what was that thing that you had for me? You looked like you wanted to give it to me while I was talking to Jack. I have something for you, too, actually."

Simon pulled the note out of his pocket, hand shaking, and shoved it in Ralph's hand while taking the note that Ralph had taken out of his own pocket. He unfolded it, stepping away slightly, and began to read.

_Simon,_

_I've never been too good with words, so this is probably going to be cheesy and awful, and I'm very sorry about that. But the purpose of this cheesy and awful note is to let you know that I have a crush on you. Actually, I've had a crush on you for a pretty long time, but it's only now that I would call us friends that I'm finally admitting it. If you don't feel the same way, this doesn't change anything at all, but if you do, then would you like to go on a date sometime?_

Below that, there was a cartoon drawing of a turtle that was captioned with _I can't draw as well as you do, but here's a turtle because they're my favorite animal._

Simon looked up and smiled, barely finding it in him to nod.

“Great minds think alike,” said Ralph, and Simon could see that his face was broken into a silly grin.

“So, does next Friday sound good?” Simon was looking up at the much taller boy, holding the note to his chest.

“Yeah. Let’s do next Friday.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for supporting me on my very first time writing Ralmon! It's a very sad ship when it's not an AU, but I didn't want to make it sad. If you want sad semi-Ralmon, read my triple crossover Simons, the first chapter of which will be coming out tomorrow, and which should be entirely out by the end of December. Love you all!  
> P.S. @Meme Chief Maurice, who has consistently commented on every chapter so far, PLEASE BE MY FRIEND I LOVE YOU


End file.
